Journey to Utgard
by Ashblood
Summary: Thor and Loki are on a journey to the world of giants, but decide to drag a couple of mortals with them. Sherlock and Molly are taken off their farm and join in the adventure.
1. Chapter 1

**Journey into Utgard**

It was summertime in Asgard and all was surprisingly peaceful: there were no squabbles to be settled between the gods and goddesses; no issues to be resolved via a quest; the visiting Light Elves were all very well behaved; the dwarves were too busy working in their forges to attempt more scams; but worst of all – at least it was in Thor's opinion -no giants were attacking and had not done so for some time. It left Thor feeling very restless. What was a thunder god to do?

He went to moan to his dad.

'Try reading a book,' Odin suggested. 'You'd learn much.'

But reading was not exactly Thor's thing, so instead he went to Freyr, god of fertility. He was busy brushing the golden bristles on his boar, Gullinborsti.

'I'd love to go fishing with you, Thor, but I've got make sure that Gully here is all bright and shining otherwise he'll be a grumpy, messy hog. Isn't that right, Gully? Who's a pretty piggy? You are! Yes, you are!' He suddenly remembered Thor was watching and looked up with a blush to say, 'Why don't you spend some time with that lovely wife of yours?'

'Sif has a spa weekend in Vanaheim. Along with your sister and the others.'

Freyr nodded as he plucked the golden hairs out of the brush. 'Ah, yes. That explains why it's so quiet around here. Do me a favour, don't let Freja know that I forgot. She won't forgive it. Now if you don't mind, someone needs their trotters polishing, isn't that right, Gully Wully?'

With no one else left to bother Thor cut across the fields to Loki's hall. Not being one for knocking he let himself in and found the trickster sitting by the hearth, drinking a glass of wine.

'Don't worry about barging in unannounced, Thor. Why should the son of Odin bother with good manners?'

'Since when do you care about manners?' Thor threw himself into the chair opposite. 'Loki, I have a great idea!'

'Really? Then do sit down – oh, you already have. So, you have a great idea, do you? Tell me, how was this miracle achieved?'

'It just popped into my head.'

'It was probably just a head louse.'

Thor was not in the least put off by Loki's insults; he was far too used to them.

He flexed his biceps as he cried, 'Lets journey to Utgard and so that I can face off against the giants there and show off my magnificence strength!'

Loki narrowed his eyes, eyes that changed from amber to green as he thought quickly.

'And you asked me because...?'

'It's always more fun to have a companion. And a witness to my feats. Don't tell me that you haven't been bored lately, everything has been far too peaceful.'

Loki drained his glass. 'And I thought it was because you valued my wits.'

'So, you'll come?' Thor asked hopefully with a smile.

'Sorry, but no. I have the boys to keep an eye on. Sigyn will never forgive me if something were to happen to them.'

Right on cue, Nari came bounding into the room, swathed in a rich blue material that it shimmered in the light. It was so long that it trailed across the floor and had evidently travelled some way, going by the tears in the material and the brown stains around the hem.

The young boy twirled like a dancer, humming to himself.

'Very nice,' Loki commented indifferently.

'Isn't that Freja's favourite dress?' said Thor.

Loki took a second a look at his son, who was now rolling back and forth across the dusty flagstones.

'She'll kill me!' he moaned loudly. 'How did you get a hold of that, Nari?'

The boy giggled loudly, and sensing trouble, charged out of the room, ruined dress dragging after him.

Loki looked to Thor. 'So, when do we leave?'

'First thing tomorrow.'

They bumped fists.

* * *

Reader: Oh, wow, that was a really great opening chapter! I can't wait to read more...Uh, Author, why are you staring at me like that?

Author: (Chuckles) Aren't you going to ask me?

Reader: Ask you what?

Author: You know.

Reader: Ugh, fine. What does Utgard mean? We really want to know.

Author: Glad you asked! Utgard is another name for Jotunheim, the world of giants.

Reader: Great! Glad to have that cleared up. See you at the next chapter.

Author: Slow down! I'm done yet. Okay, so in the old Norse religion a physical place – or society- could be defined as being innagard or utangard. Innagard means "within the enclosure" and refers to orderly, law abiding places. Whereas utangard means "beyond the enclosure", so is the name for choatic, wild places.

This is why Asgard, Midgard, and Utgard all have the suffix – gard in them, because they're characterised as being either places of order or of chaos. Broadly speaking, the gods represented Order and the giants Chaos, although it's not always that black and white in the myths.

People themselves could also be described as either being innagard or utangard, depending on if you were law abiding or not. If you committed a serious crime you could be outlawed, meaning you were stripped of you civil rights. The process of being outlawed was known as "going into the forest" and being an outlaw meant "being a man of the forest". _Skóggangr and _ _skógarmaðr respectively. _

_In other words, "going into the forest" meant moving beyond the protection of the law, or innagard, and into the utangard, the unlawful and the wild._

_Anyone else thinking of Robin Hood? Does mean it was supposed to be some kind of joke that Robin the Outlaw, Robin the "man of the forest" went to live in a forest? _

_Okay, now I'm done. At least until I want to explain that giant doesn't always mean giant in the way that we think it does. _

_All this info came from a website, Norse Mythology for Smart People, and has been really useful!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Somewhere in Midgard...**

For Sherlock Holmes married life was proving to be an interesting challenge. Before his wedding he had very little in the way of responsibility, except to himself, but now he was the guardian and protector of that very intelligent and pretty woman, and if he should fall short in her eyes of fulfilling his husbandly duties then she could simply and easily divorce him, free to leave the farm with her share of the property and marry someone she truly loved. But she would never do that, Sherlock knew his Molly.

'I am going to divorce you, Sherlock Holmes!' Molly yelled so loudly that the timbers in the roof rattled. 'By Freyja, I will! Thor help you when my brothers hear about this, all five of them!'

Sherlock felt clueless as what he had done this time to provoke such wrath – the invocation of the names of two gods was a bad sign - and even considered bolting over the fence he was improving and make a break for the woods, but that was no good. He'd have to come home eventually and she and her brothers would be waiting for him. Best to let her blow off her anger sooner rather than later.

He didn't have long to mentally steal himself as seconds later Molly came storming out of the house.

'A severed head?!' she shrieked, holding the offending object aloft by its hair and dangling it in front of Sherlock's nose. 'An actual severed head in the house?!'

Sherlock relaxed his grip on the hammer he had been clutching for comfort.

'Oh, that?' he sniffed. 'It's an experiment.'

'It's disgusting, that's what it is! How many times do I have to tell you that severed heads stay – where?'

'Outside,' Sherlock droned. 'On the spike.'

'Exactly. Houses are for people and animals, not dead heads.' With a grunt Molly worked the green head back onto it's spike, so that it's gruesome face was looking out towards the woods.

'So old fashioned,' Sherlock complained.

'No it's not. It's vintage. Retro. Anyway, if it was good enough for the Celts then it's good enough for us. Never mind your fence with all it's bells and charms, I bet it's Billy here who really keeps out the giants. It's gross enough that even Thor wouldn't think twice about...oh, dear!'

She was right to quickly fall silent because directly above their farm storm clouds were quickly gathering together to blot out the sun. Thunder boomed above their heads, becoming louder with every passing second.

'I think he heard you.'

'But I hadn't said anything!'

Out of the bruised clouds came a chariot pulled by two goats with gleaming horns. The rattle of chariot wheels and the pounding of goats hooves against the sky was so loud that Sherlock and Molly were forced to cover their ears.

The chariot came down just beyond the fence and out jumped two red headed men, one bulky with flashing eyes and the other lithe and twitchy. They needed no introduction. They briefly looked about the farm, taking in the low-slung house, propped up by beams. With it's green turfed roof it looked like a wave on an ocean of grass, ready to gently sink back into the ground at any moment.

'We need food and shelter for the night,' Loki told them. 'Quick as you like.'

He tried smiling at them but the smile was marred by the silvery scars criss-crossing over his lips. Molly took a step behind Sherlock.

'We can provide shelter,' Sherlock informed him. 'But not much in the way of food.'

'Really? Not even a chicken?'

'I'm making vegetable potage,' Molly spoke over Sherlock's shoulder. 'If you don't mind turnip...well, it's all turnip actually...'

Loki screwed his face up. 'Blargh! That's no good.'

Sherlock and Molly exchanged worried glances. Providing hospitality to anyone who came by was important, but there was not much they could do if their guest did not like what was on offer.

Thankfully Thor came to rescue. 'I can easily provide what you don't have,' he said, giving Loki a small shove and a rueful look. 'Allow me to fetch my goats.' On his way back through the fence he paused by the severed head. 'Oh, and I like your scarecrow. Very amusing. The children must love it.'

Molly ignored Sherlock's smug look.

They both watched fascinated as Thor effortlessly and without hesitation slaughtered both goats and then skinned them; then he cut them up into joints and handed them over to Molly for her to squeeze into the largest cauldron. As she did so Thor spread out the goat skins on the floor in front of the fire.

'As you eat be sure to place the bones onto the skins,' he said.

Unfortunately for Sherlock and Molly the actual eating of the goats was still hours away and they were both very hungry. They watched the meat slowly cooking with hungry eyes and growling stomachs.

When the meat was finally cooked Thor reminded them again, 'Be careful with the bones. Make sure that they land unbroken upon the skins.'

Everyone ate quickly, eager to fill up their bellies; and while no one was looking at him, Loki slyly split open a thigh bone with his knife and sucked out the marrow before flicking it onto the skin along with all of the other bones.

After they had eaten they all settled down for the night and slept soundly.

* * *

AN: A Little On Viking Weddings/Marriages:

As you'd expect back then marriages had the purpose of controlling sexual conduct and uniting families for social and political gain. They were arranged (except under certain circumstances), so love was not a consideration. It was common practise for fathers to consult their daughters because "...marriages made contrary to the stated will of the girl are unmitigated disasters, ending with the death, maiming, or divorce of the husband" although women did not exactly have a choice. Same goes for the man. However, the law meant that women could divorce if the marriage was unbearable; as for the man, it was acceptable for him to have affairs.

As mentioned above Viking women did have the right to divorce and this did give them a small amount of power which was unusual in other parts of the world at the time, but this shouldn't be mistaken for equality.

Men could lawfully have mistresses, but women had to remain faithful and chaste. If they were caught in the act of adultery then they could be killed by their husbands. However, having the option of divorce and being able to take their property with them meant that wives would always have a higher status that any mistress, which according to one source I read, meant that mistresses were tolerated. I don't know about this. It was probably more likely that wives had to tolerate the mistresses because it was acceptable at the time for men to do this. Even the male gods all had their mistresses – including Thor – and there was nothing considered to be wrong about it.

Anyway, so let say that two families successfully negotiate and their children are betrothed. What happens next is that the man has to pay a bride price, this could be as low as 8 ounces of Silver in Iceland or 12 ounces in Norway. Why this minimal payment? It was used as proof that a man had enough money to raise children. It was the cost of making children legitimate. Her family pays a dowry. And then there's the Morning-Gift. This was a sum paid by the husband to his wife after the first night. It was considered payment for her sexual availability, or as compensation for the horrifically painful and dangerous experience of giving birth.


End file.
